


Patterns

by imsfire



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Gen, Kyber Crystals, all the feels, fractals, headcanon about kyber crystals, in which the author attempts to invent science, little Jyn, mother and daughter feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-08 00:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19096240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/pseuds/imsfire
Summary: Lyra Erso attempts to explain something of the wonder of kyber crystals to her very curious small daughter.





	Patterns

**Author's Note:**

> For week one, day three of Celebrate Rogue One on tumblr; themes, Jyn and Patterns.

“Why are you squinting your eyes up like that, mama?”

Lyra looked up at her daughter.  “I’m just working, darling.”

“You mustn’t squint for too long.” Jyn sidled a little closer, peering around her mother’s elbow at the equipment on the workbench. “Grandma says if you squint and the wind changes, your face will stick that way.”

“Grandma isn’t always right, you know.  And I’m not squinting, I’m looking with one eye closed,” Lyra said. “That’s how to look through a microviewer.”

“Is that a microviewera?” Jyn pointed.

“Microviewer.  Yes.”

Jyn was still trying to look as though she wasn’t peeking, even as she was practically squashing herself against her mother’s side to be able to see more.  One of her pigtails was sticking out sideways, a clear sign that she’d been napping.  But once nap time was over, heavens help her parents if they tried to get her to sleep again. 

It was impossible to resist her little face, anyway; precious precious child, with her avid and precocious interest in everything, and her charming determination to appear diffident.

Lyra twisted round in her seat and scooped her daughter into her lap. “Want a look?”

A momentary air of bashfulness, before eager interest won and Jyn allowed herself to squeak with excitement.

“Here you go, then.  Shut one eye and look through here with the other.  Just shut the one, not both of them, or you won’t see anything!” They both laughed at how silly that would be.  Jyn pressed her left eye to the lens-piece of the microviewer.

“Squinting,” she pronounced.

“Not squinting.  This is mama’s scientific research.  It isn’t squinting when it’s for science.” Lyra adjusted the focussing ring by slow fractions. “Can you see anything yet?”

“No – yes!” Jyn lifted her face.  Her eyes were sparkling.  So like her father, swept away in an instant by the marvels she saw. “Patterns!”

“What kind of patterns?”

Her daughter waved excited fingers, as though she were sprinkling circles of glitter. “Swirly-curly patterns.  They’re all shiny and they have little bits on the edges.”

“That’s right.  That’s a very good description, sweet-plum.  Look again and I’ll show you something special. Can you see the swirly pattern again, and the little bits on the edge?” Jyn nodded, quivering with excitement on her mother’s knee.  Lyra began to adjust the brass focussing ring again. “Keep looking at the little bits?  Tell me what you see?”

“Getting bigger.  And bigger.  And – mama!  They’ve turned into swirlies too.  They have their own little bits now.” Jyn looked up, wide-eyed. “Is it a magic trick?”

“No, darling, it’s real.  This is what mama’s favourite stones look like at a microscopic level.”

“Kyber crystals?” Jyn’s fingers strayed to her mother’s necklace.  It had been an object of fascination to her since infancy.  At least nowadays she didn’t try to chew it. “A microscopsic level?”

“Microscopic.  That means, very, very close-up.  Most crystals –“ Lyra pointed at the specimen shelf with its row of geodes and quartz prisms – “have lattices inside, kind of like a basket weave, or else a planar structure – that means their molecules come in lots of thin flat sheets, like stacks of bedsheets.  But kyber crystals are different.  They’re very special because no other crystal has these patterns inside.  It’s a kind of pattern that goes on forever.”

“Forever?” The sea-green eyes gazing up at her were very wide.  Jyn knew what forever meant; she knew an even bigger word. “Into _infinity_?”

“That’s right.  Forever and ever.  The closer you look, the further the pattern goes.  We think this is why kyber crystals can store the Force.  It’s called a fractal pattern.”

“And it’s u-nique?” Another of her favourite words at the moment. “It’s the only one?”

“Well, yes and no.  There are lots of fractals in nature.  All kinds of living things grow following them.  Look at the edges of leaves, and ferns, and the patterns in flowers.  But kyber crystals are the only stones we know of that have fractals in them.  The only ones with forever and infinity inside.”

Jyn looked into the lens-piece again, and her mother bent down to press a ghost of a kiss to her untidy hair.  She was studying the image in the viewer, biting her little lip, really staring hard at the problem of the kyber crystals.  Finally she asked “So are they alive?”

“That’s a very good question.  We – scientists like your papa and me – aren’t sure yet.  But the Jedi-that-were could touch the Force in them, and the great Kyber Temple of Jedha is a place where everyone can sense the Force, it’s so strong.  Even me.  So could you, if you were there, even though you’re only ever so little!  So maybe, in a way, they are alive.  Science is still finding out answers.  That’s why it’s so much fun to do.”

“When I’m grown up,” Jyn said “I’ll go the great Kyber Temple and I’ll find out the answer.  And then I’ll bring it to you so we both know it.”

Her mother kissed her again.  Jyn looked up from the microviewer with a happy beam on her face, and suddenly something made Lyra shiver.  But what could be sweeter or more innocent than her little girl’s desire to see the universe and learn all its secrets?  She swallowed the odd, cold feeling back, and smiled instead. “Yes, stardust,” she said. “I believe you will.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sure it's obvious to anyone who knows anything about geology that I'm talking rubbish here; but I've had this completely un-science-based headcanon for ages about kyber crystals and just thought I'd make use of it!


End file.
